Submitted by: Cathy Millburn
REVEREND THOMAS MILLER SMITH
Thomas Miller Smith, b July 27, 1899 at Stranger,
Falls County, Texas, d December 10, 1975 in Marlin, Texas and buried in Calvary
Cemetery ‑ was a son of Isaac and Anna May (Swinnea) Smith of the Stranger
Community. On December 22, 1916 in the Fairview Cumberland Presbyterian Church,
Miller married Ina Eula McCoy, b February 11, 1900 at Stranger ‑ a daughter of
James Leland and Margaret (Hufstetler) McCoy, who had settled in the Stranger
Community from Tennessee.
Miller and Ina both attended the Lon Morris Junior College in East Texas, and
attended Southwestern University in Georgetown. Ina completed her college
training in Economics at North Texas State
Teacher's College in Denton.
Miller and Ina were both reared in the Cumberland
Presbyterian denomination of their parents, although Miller's mother was a
member of the Methodist denomination. After their marriage, they became
Methodists, and when Miller became a minister, it was in the Methodist faith.
Miller's first pastorate was the Methodist Church in
Dew, Texas ‑ a small community between Fairfield and Teague, Texas ‑ followed by
five or six years of service in each of the Methodist Churches at Franklin, The
Groves in Port Arthur, Rockdale, Hughes Springs, with his last pulpit being at
St. Paul's in Bryan, Texas. Ina worked with Miller in each of his churches, and
they became a much loved couple wherever they served. The couple had no children
of their own, but were the favorites of many nieces and nephews, as well as
young people who were not related to them.
When Reverend Thomas Miller Smith died, numerous
people recalled how much he had always loved people. His widow continues to
reside in Marlin, Texas, where her yard has often been named "yard of the month"
by Marlin's Garden Clubs. She supports the First Methodist Church of Marlin, and
continues to give to the family churches in Blue Ridge and Stranger.
Copyright Permission granted to Theresa Carhart for printing the biographies of
these Falls County Families to this Web page.
"Families of Falls County", Compiled and Edited by the Falls County
Historical Commission, page 421 column 1 and 2.
Member of Falls County Historical Commission.